Prevalence of Toxoplasma gondii in retail venison in Montreal detected using a nested PCR method
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Toxoplasma gondii is a globally significant zoonotic pathogen responsible for congenital disorders and opportunistic infections, primarily transmitted through foodborne pathways. Deer are considered high-risk hosts for T. gondii infection; however, data on its prevalence in their muscle tissues remain limited. This study assessed the prevalence of T. gondii in 168 fresh venison samples collected in Montreal in 2024. The sensitivity of conventional PCR and nested PCR methods for detecting the RE-529 fragment was compared. Nested PCR exhibited a detection limit of 2 fg/μL, which is 100 times more sensitive than that of conventional PCR. Using nested PCR, T. gondii DNA was detected in 73 out of 168 samples, indicating a high positivity rate of 43.45 %. These findings reveal the widespread prevalence of T. gondii in venison sold in Montreal and emphasize the importance of freezing or thoroughly cooking venison to mitigate the risk of foodborne toxoplasmosis. This study provides baseline data for health risk assessments and contributes to the development of food safety policies in Canada. • The detection limit of nested PCR was 2 fg/μL. • This was the study to assess T. gondii in retail venison in Montreal. • Among 168 venison samples tested, 73 were positive, with a positivity rate of 43.45 %. • Venison should be frozen for a day or thoroughly cooked to reduce T. gondii risk.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.001 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".